Friday, August 30, 2019
Cormac McCarthy’s The Road Essay
Life can be cruel. In most cases, it squeezes the hell out of us. Nevertheless, the challenge is to come out unscathed. But do we always achieve this? And if so, what do we get out of every excruciating pain we have to endure?            The road to recovery has so many twists and turns. It is a test of strength but more so of faith. It is about believing in something we do not even see. The kind of person we become out of life’s most ultimate test defines who we are.            How many of us could actually say that living life is a breeze? Who have not known pain? Who can claim that life was pure pleasure? Who has never cried a tear?            All of us have been tested by time at one time or the other. We have been bitten by its pangs a couple of times over. We have been bloodied at countless instances. We have cried a pail full of tears.            Yet, we continue to breathe. The sun sets and rises every single day of our lives. We battle it out today for tomorrow has a challenge of its own. We have to gain as much strength as we have lost or if possible, much greater. This is all because pain will not die at the end of day. Most probably, it will wake up the same morning we open our eyes from sleep. Throughout the course of our life’s struggle we do not usually travel alone. Someone keeps us company. Even just for a while, we journey life’s path with a companion. It makes the burden a lot easier and even more meaningful. We are reminded that life after all is about building relationships that sees us through the most trying of times. Life gives us people to guide and accompany us as we thread down the road. Sometimes they live long enough to witness our feat. But usually they do not. Nevertheless, they serve their purpose. They provide comfort whenever we are afraid. They wipe our tears dry and lull us to sleep to regain lost strength. They give us hope in the most miserable of circumstances. They teach us to see another day as a chance to turn things around.            When every one else have left, who do we turn to? When the material wealth we have is none, how can we move on? When fate turns against us, what is the chance for survival? When it seems to be the world versus one man, is success hiding beneath the clouds of doubt? Whenever life robs us of our possessions, may we find comfort in knowing that we have not lost it all. Our family will remain to be the wealth exclusively our own. Neither fate nor circumstance can take it away from us. It is something ours, and ours alone.            A father’s love can be the only thing that can make us possibly walk another mile. It could ease the pain in our hearts knowing that someone is guiding us through. Whenever doubt seems to restrict every movement we make, let us be reminded that our father’s strength runs through our veins.            The story about a father and a son is not uncommon for many of us. Universal as a literary theme is its message. It transcends age, culture, race and tradition. It speaks a language known by all. It is something that lives and outlives generations and beyond.            A father and son’s story is about strength. It is about keeping tears from falling even if you just wanted to succumb and cry. It is about learning to be a man as fate continues to challenge his ability to remain brave and undefeated. Nothing can be more painful than seeing death happen right through our very eyes. Nothing can be more frightening than the thought that the next victim could possibly be me. Nothing can be more frustrating than realizing that tomorrow will just be like any other day of violence and death. Nothing can be much harder than believing that things happen for a reason.            How can we possibly live when life on earth seems to be empty, both literally and figuratively? We all know that it would not always be a bed of roses. But why does it seem to be usually a bed of thorns? How much pain can a man endure? What is the real essence of suffering?            Cormac McCarthy’s novel entitled The Road, is dedicated to his son, John Francis McCarthy. The novel a finalist of the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction and a recipient of both the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Pulitzer Price for fiction unfolds the journey of a man and a boy across a post – apocalyptic panorama. The background signifies what was left after a great cataclysm made existence on this earth almost unheard of (McCarthy, 2006). Whoever said that life must go on may not know of a lot about surviving death. Whenever we witness death, it feels like a part of us has also stopped breathing. It leaves us numb and unaware that the world around us continues to run its course. Life must go on indeed. This statement must be true after all. No matter how hard and how unimaginable it may seem we are all compelled to do it just the same. We cannot pause for a moment and recollect our lost selves before anything else. Time passes by and once lost, it can never be regained. Sometimes, we just got to keep on moving no matter what. Move on and go on and trust that life may lead us to rest right when we need it the most. Death should remind us that life is lived just once. We may not be able to control what lies on the bend of the road, but we still have to thread it, nevertheless. Death reminds us that we have to give meaning to our existence. This is the challenge we all have to face. In the dark tunnel of death, life is the light at the end of it. It may be seen as a symbol of a cycle. Every end can be the start of something new. For every chapter of life that has been told precedes another story yet to unfold. This is but the cycle of life. It is a never ending story about life and death. More importantly, it is a challenge of living a life of worth to make death as important. For death could mean something only if the life lost left a void. There may be times when giving up is all too tempting. Enduring the most painful events of life is really too exhausting. These are the moments when we beg of death. These are the times when life appears to be worthless. We are sometimes too consumed by pain that we seem to believe that life is hell on earth. Life does not come without pain.  Every once in a while or sometimes a little too often pain is thrown on our way. Whenever it does, it reminds us that we are very much alive. It makes us feel so human. It makes things so real. The sweetness of pain lies on our ability to bear its bitterness. Even so, life may not really be all about pain and suffering. We can surely get some sweetness from it when we squeeze it dry. There is some kind of balance in the world we live in. Goodness surely lies on some corner. It may take time and a lot of effort in between, but it is there as it has always been. The most challenging of all circumstances teaches a lesson or two. Things happen not to make man resolve into thinking that life is a crazy game of pessimism. While there is ruthlessness, there is goodness. Goodness comes in the most unexpected of packages. It comes during the most unanticipated of times. It comes when we have almost given up. It comes at just the right moment to remind us that it was worth it to hold on. Holding on is oftentimes the only thing left to do. It may not be the most logical but it could possibly be the most practical. Some people come into our lives and quietly go but they leave us a message that speaks so clear and sound. It is from strangers that we gain the wisdom we would not have otherwise known. And this could be the beauty of life. That after all the pain, we may be able to smile again. Just when we thought that we can never know life to be kind, someone teaches us the value of optimism. When gravity seems to pull us down while trying to hold on with all our might, a helping hand extends for the taking. Just when we get so near the end of our rope, let us find comfort that someone is at the other end to take over.   They pull us through when we might have lost all the strength that is left. They are once a stranger we crossed paths with. But before the road takes us to yet another bend, each other are no more strangers. For that walk we shared has left some of the most important lessons we can never forget. Life is hard but we are tougher. It can take away everything but we can always leave some bit of hope deep inside our hearts. We may not have anymore tears left to cry. We may be left with broken bones and battered ego. But if we continue to struggle along the road and combat every imaginable obstacle there is, we can still be hailed victors of the finest kind. May we not lose hope on the promise of yet another sunrise no matter how painful life has made known itself to man. Life takes on a whole new meaning when it is lived not for thy self. A life lived in this way is noble in all the ways that matter. References BBC.co.uk. (2007, April 17). Novelist McCarthy wins Pulitzer. Retrieved February 26, 2008, from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6563291.stm Chabon, M. The New York Review of Books. (2007, February 15). After the Apocalypse. Retrieved February 26, 2008, from http://www.nybooks.com/articles/19856. Conlon, M. Reuters. (2007, June 5). Writer Cormac McCarthy confides in Oprah Winfrey. Retrieved February 26, 2008, from http://www.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idUSN0526436120070605?pageNumber=1. Empire. (2007, April 2). John Hillcoat Hits The Road An adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s novel. Retrieved February 26, 2008, from http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=20573. Guardian.co.uk. (2007, October 30). Civilisation ends with a shutdown of human concern. Are we there already? Retrieved February 26, 2008, from http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2201594,00.html. Jones, M. (2006). On the Lost Highway. Newsweek. Retrieved February 26, 2008, from http://services.newsweek.com//search.aspx?offset=0&pageSize=10&sortField=pu bdatetime&sortDirection=descending&mode=summary&q=on+the+lost+highway &site-search-submit.x=33&site-search-submit.y=7 Keller, J. (2007). Oprah’s selection a real shocker; Winfrey, McCarthy strange bookfellows. Chicago Tribune. Retrieved February 26, 2008, from http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/chicagotribune/access/1246151131.html?dids=12461 51131:1246151131&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Mar+29 %2C+2007&author=Julia+Keller&pub=Chicago+Tribune&edition=&startpage=1 &desc=Oprah%27s+selection+a+real+shocker+. Kennedy, W. (2001). Left Behind. The New York Times. Retrieved February 26, 2008, from http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/08/books/review/Kennedy.t.html?ex=1189396800&en=6d113b5a5cbaf19b&ei=5070 McCarthy, C. (2006). The Road. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. National Book Critics Circle. (2006). NBCC Awards Finalists. Retrieved February 26, 2008, from http://www.bookcritics.org/?go=finalists
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